Saturday, February 20, 2010

Girls Night Out ~ Go Girl Art

I am truly blessed to have a group of really good girlfriends,... the best kind of girlfriends. The kind that are ALWAYS there for you. In good times and in bad. The kind that take really good care of you when you feel tired or sick or just plain overwhelmed. The kind that finish your sentences because more often than not you are so in sync. The kind that make you laugh to the point of tears. The kind that cry with you during the hard/sad times. The kind that you can be 100% yourself with knowing that you are loved and accepted and never judged. The kind that you feel totally at peace leaving your kids with because you know the type of Mommies they are.

These girls are those girlfriends to me:

Laura, Susan, Valerie, and Cora

We make it a point of getting together at least once every single month for a Girls Night. No husbands. No children. Just the girls. We usually take turns picking a restaurant and sit and eat and drink and talk for hours. Recently, Susan suggested we give a new concept called "Go Girl Paint" a try. Following is how it is described on their website:

Take a fun night out with friends, add a little wine…or a lot, throw in some music, paints and canvases and you just may end up with a masterpiece !! 2 ½ hours of step by step art instruction. You come with an open mind and an appetite. At the end of the evening, you have had a great time AND you go home with an original masterpiece that will be the envy of your friends! You may even get to know that inner artist that is in all of us!

We looked through the website and found a painting we all agreed on called Sunset at His House. So we signed up and had our first Go Girl Paint experience last night. Well, all of us except for Valerie who was home sick with a nasty stomach virus. We missed you, Girl!

Okay, so we brought in a pizza, some beverages, and some cupcakes and we were ready to go. Lisa, the artist and creator of this concept, provides all the supplies you need to make your masterpiece.

Now, there's something you must know about me. I consider myself to be a pretty crafty person. I can scrapbook. I can make invitations, cards, and other paper crafts. I can paint/spray paint the heck out of a piece of furniture. I can do some basic sewing. I can make some jewelry. I can even cross stitch. But the one thing I cannot do is paint. Placing me in front of a blank canvas, paint and some paint brushes will undoubtedly yield a very stressed out and anxious Liz. So having said this, yes I was a bit antsy about our painting party, but I was also very excited about doing it with the girls.

Lisa was phenomenal. She was super patient and helped us out tremendously. And by us I'm referring to the 25+ women who were in that room with us. I can honestly tell you we had a blast. We laughed at ourselves and at each other the entire time we were there.

We made so much fun of Laura and the fact that most of her painting was actually done by the instructor. We gave her the nickname Kielbasa, after she was repeatedly referring to herself as Picasso and ended up so tongue-twisted that what eventually came out was something along the lines of Kielbasa.

Laura concentrating on her painting. Pft! As if,... we all know Lisa did hers!

So as you can imagine, I'm about to post a picture of my creation, but let me first remind you that I am a BEGINNER and that, my dear friends, is the reason why my painting looks like a 5 year-old painted it.

Without further ado,.... here is my creation:

And a close-up:

Lisa said it's folk art so it's not supposed to be perfect. Personally, I think that's a great line to feed a bunch of women who have no idea what they're doing. But being that she said it, I think I might just use it going forward.

And finally, here we all are with our creations:

HA! Such a proud group of girls,..

So, is it the prettiest piece of art I have EVER seen? Nope, it sure isn't! But I conquered my fear of the blank canvas, paint and paint brushes and I made something with it all by myself. And the best part is that we had a great time together. So much so in fact, that we're looking into booking another Go Girl Paint session in the next few months. Now that should be interesting!